Easter - as in estrogen, a time to make like a rabbit?

A Synthesis of the Tales of Oestre/Eastre/Ostara and her bird

The goddess of the dawn, Eastre, brought not merely a new day but new life. She was the goddess of fertility and every year her arrival was eagerly awaited to bring about the end of winter. As we know, gods and goddesses are not perfect, they are much like humans, only more so. Thus, one winter went longer than it should have as Eastre dallied at what we shall not mention here and brought but a late thaw. When she arrived in the land she found a bird whose wings were frozen in the snow. The bird had returned on time, but the land was not ready for her. Eastre felt pity for the creature- certainly not guilt, goddesses are not about guilt. She freed the bird's frozen wings, but the bird had broken them in its thrashing about to be free. Eastre picked up the creature and tried to warm it at her breast. She stroked it and kept it with her through the day, but it could not be healed by her touch. Left alone, unable to fly, the bird would not live long. Once again the goddess took pity on the bird and changed her into a hare, a fertility goddesses favorite animal, and gave the hare great speed so it would not be hunted. The hare, relieved to be free and smart enough not to hang around a deity, all of them famous for their mercurial natures, hopped away. Come the next equinox the hare was stunned to learn, as might you be, that she could lay eggs. Not just any eggs, but ones of brilliant color. As a gift to the goddess for saving her life the hare placed the eggs amongst the ever green plants and the early blooming flowers. And here they were found by worshipers of Eastre who came to these places to give her their thanks for bringing back the sun and life. Mind you, the eggs were not hidden, but protected from animals that might make off with warm fresh magic hare eggs.


But why are they chocolate eggs? I believe Hershey's, Nestle and Cadbury have that bit of the tale.

An interesting note is that modern scholars refer to the bird/hare as a male. Why a male would lay eggs is beyond me, but it may come from the fact that some interpretations of the text have Eastre taking Lepus as a lover. Whether this was intended in the original tale or not, it is clear that the bird was female. In addition, the translation of the tale to Latin had the hare taking the name Lepus, which is also a hare in roman mythology, in that case a male. My understanding does not have the goddess taking the bird/hare as a lover, but tending to the bird- loving it.